The Apple iPad: starts at $499 — After nearly a decade of rumors and speculation, Apple's finally unveiled the iPad. Apple says there's room for a third device between the smartphone and the laptop, and that it has to be better at tasks like browsing, email, photos, e-books …

Apple iPad First Hands On — It's substantial but surprisingly light. Easy to grip. Beautiful. Rigid. Starkly designed. The glass is a little rubbery but it could be my sweaty hands. And it's fasssstttt. — Apple didn't really sell this point, but it's the single biggest benefit of the iPad: speed.

No Flash on Apple's iPad — Here's another way Apple's just-announced tablet device, the iPad, resembles a giant iPhone: It won't run Flash content. — The continuing absence of Flash from the iPhone has been the subject of plenty of debate and speculation.

Apple iPad Hardware Revealed — The brand-new Apple iPad, contrary to prior rumors, is available in two networked versions, one with just Wi-Fi and one with Wi-Fi and 3G. Full hardware spec list, constantly updated, after the jump. The iPad is packing a 9.7-inch IPS display …

Amazon: You can read Kindle books on the iPad too — There's been a lot of talk about how Apple's iPad could wipe out Kindle as a device. But a big part of Amazon's Kindle business is the e-book store, which includes some 400,000-plus digital titles. Amazon has pursued a strategy …

Apple iPad First Device to Use “Apple A4” Processor — Apple didn't buy P.A. Semiconductor for nothing. And now the fruits of that buyout are appearing: The Apple iPad uses a 1GHz “A4” chip that can decode HD video for up to 10 hours on a single charge. [Apple iPad]

Search is getting more social — Late last year we released the Social Search experiment to make search more personal with relevant web content from your friends and online contacts. We were excited by the number of people who chose to try it out, and today Social Search is available to everyone in beta on google.com.

Apple Wins iChat and Major Tablet Patent Prior to Launch — The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 13 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. Without a doubt the granted patent that screams out this morning is one that relates to Apple's forthcoming Tablet.

Bing on iPhone - Microsoft's Ultimate Mobile Coup? — If the recent blitz of rumors are correct, Apple is considering booting Google from iPhone Safari and giving Bing its spot as default search engine. As huge as this is from a business relations point of view (Apple must be seriously angry …